Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais

Lagoa Santa (Holy Loch) is a municipality in the state o Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is locatit 37 km north-northeast frae Belo Horizonte an belangs tae the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte an tae the microregion o Belo Horizonte.

Location o Lagoa Santa athin Minas Gerais

Cradle o Brazilian paleontologie

The Dens palaeontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund, kent as the faither o Brazilian paleontologie, discovered a cave filled wi human bones (15 skeletons) an megafauna (vera muckle mammals) datin tae the Pleistocene era. Eugen Warming assistit Lund 1863-1866, an describit the flora o the aurie an the adaptations o the plants tae the hazards o cerrado – drocht an fire – in a wirk that still staunds as a paradigm o ecological study ('Lagoa Santa'). The tomb o illustrator Peter Andreas Brandt, a assistant o Lund an aw, is locatit in the toun.

A century later, in the 1970s, French archeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire carriet oot excavations in the aurie an discovered the auldest human fossil in Brazil, ower 11 thoosan year auld, gien the elkname Luzia.

See an aw

• Leet o municipalities in Minas Gerais
• Pedra Furada sites

References

• Charles C. Mann, 1491, Random House, 2005.